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Re: [Fwd: New Jersey Historic Plate Plates question]

To: Becky Mahoney <bmahoney@home.com>
Subject: Re: [Fwd: New Jersey Historic Plate Plates question]
From: Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:04:30 +0000
Becky Mahoney wrote:
> 
> I am thinking about a personalized plate too.  I think it would be
> interesting to find out if any of the other listers have personalized
> plates, and if so, what do they say?

Personalised plates in the UK are a little bit tricky as the format is supposed 
to adhere to one of the formats for standard plates e.g. LL nnnn (quite a lot 
of MGs with MG nnnn) LLL nnn or nnn LLL or LLL nnn L or L nnn LLL where for a 
long time one or two of the letters in the group of three indicated the place 
of 
registration.  University Motors Group used to buy blocks of 'UMG' 
registrations, and more recently there has been a spate of L nnn MGR, L nnn MGF 
and 'M 6 lll' (MG LLL).  You are not supposed to alter the spacing of letters 
and 
numbers to make 'words' more obvious, and because the single letter denotes the 
12 month period of registration it is illegal for a car to carry a registration 
where the single letter implies that the car is younger than it really is.  
People also place black fixing screws in strategic positions so as to make '11' 
look like a 'U', for example, and background-coloured screws through letters or 
numbers e.g to make a 6 look like a G.

However the government auctions certain plates from time i.e. N 1 CKY 
(UKP25,000 
to you sir) which my daughter would have liked, and they sell series of less 
desirable plates e.g. H 11 MPH and H 12 PBH (which can be read as "Hi I'm PH" 
and 
"Hi 2 PBH", how naff can you get) considerably cheaper.  Therefore most, if not 
all of their own plates really need 'illegal' spacing for best effect.  A case 
of 
selling people their cake but not allowing them to eat it.

The single letter originally changed on the Jan 1st each year, but the snob 
value 
of a 'new letter' plus the increased monetary value at resale of a car 
registered 
on 1st Jan over one registered the previous day meant that huge numbers of cars 
had to be stockpiled ready for 1st Jan.  The letter change date was moved to 
1st 
August some time ago, but still leads to about 40% of cars being registered on 
that day.  Also, having already worked through the alphabet (not all letters 
are 
used) for the single letter at the end of the registration, and now shortly to 
be 
seeing 'S' registrations at the beginning of current registrations, we are 
rapidly running out of numbers.

So the government has come up with a new format of LLL nn LL where the group of 
three belongs to the car, the two digits represents some time period but I am 
not 
sure how it overcomes the '1st Aug rush', and the group of two letters 
indicates 
the place of registration again.  Incorrect spacing, letter font, spurious 
fixing 
screws etc are all to become illegal and pundits reckon it is a blow to 
personalised plates (and hence government income, one assumes) as well as (re) 
introducing a new snob element of location.

Why the USA style isn't adopted I'll never know (apart from civil service 
mentality) as a plate that makes a word is far mor memorable for witnesses of a 
road incident, I would have thought.  A chap I met in Nantucket has a Bugatti 
look-alike with 'BUGATTI' at the back and 'DWAYNE' at the front, the one at the 
back presumably being the registered number.  He told me that he registered the 
plate some years before he got the car on the road and had to pay to keep the 
plate otherwise it would have been assigned to someone else.

For my part the roadster has a completely standard plate and although the V8 
was 
registered MGS 787 P from new they will always be 'Bee' and 'Vee' to me and 
that 
is what is displayed on the front plates under the official registration.

PaulH.



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